Enter now to join The Launch Pad’s tradition of industry access and writer success, including projects sold to Netflix, Paramount, Sony and more.
Plus, seven bidding wars!
RAISED BY WOLVES | THE MARTIAN | GLADIATOR
“Writers are an integral part of my team and without them I would not be able to do my job, so to be able to work with Launch Pad and provide a new and innovative way for them to get their work out in the world is truly exciting.”
Manager & Producer, Energy Entertainment
“The numbers speak for themselves. Beyond the massive amount of writers who have landed reps from Launch Pad, no other has led to more sales and bidding wars in existence. And beyond that, the success isn’t just here, but these scripts have landed on every major end of year list. This place starts careers!”
The Launch Pad Competitions have led to more signings, success stories and careers than any other screenwriting competition. With a decade of experience in promoting up-and-coming writers, The Launch Pad Competition has firmly established itself as the premier hub for Hollywood to discover fresh voices and new ideas. We advocate for all of our Top 100 finalists, working with them to share their work with the right industry members to advance their career.
Our prestigious juries of industry members include managers, agents, producers and executives at companies across Hollywood. We also offer exclusive partnerships with management and production companies to give writers an extra leg up.
Through these partnerships, as well as our exclusive mentorship opportunities, we seek to provide as many avenues towards success as possible. No competition will do more to help all of their finalists take the next steps in their careers, and no competition has had as much success in helping writers break into the industry. Enter now for a chance to join this tradition of Launch Pad success.
Casey Hodgkinson
Apatow Productions | Creative Executive
Casey Hodgkinson is a Creative Executive at Apatow Productions, where she develops projects for both film and TV. She started her career in representation, most notably at 3 Arts Entertainment, where she worked closely with some of the top comedic talent in the world. She holds a BA in Cinema and Television Arts from Cal State Northridge.
Haley Pigman
Blumhouse | Manager of Creative Development
Haley is the Manager of Creative Development at Blumhouse Productions, working across an array of genre features from development through production which include upcoming titles THE BLACK PHONE, THEY/THEM and HALLOWEEN ENDS. She started in the industry as an Agent Trainee at Paradigm Talent Agency before moving into Development at Legendary Entertainment. Haley has a passion for storytelling and her ambition is to amplify provocative, entertaining stories that make cultural waves.
Jessica Zou
Verve | Motion Picture Lit Agent
Born and raised in China, Jessica holds a Masters in Communication Management from USC. During school years, she interned at Legendary and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. She soon started in the mailroom at UTA, moving on to assist agents in the Motion Picture Literary department who represent writers, directors, and producers. She also focuses on finding diverse voices and bridging different cultures within Hollywood. Early in 2020, Jessica joined Verve where she now works as an MP Lit agent.
Wilson Rubinoff
Paradigm | Literary Agent
Rubinoff is a literary agent representing writers and directors. He came to Paradigm in 2017 as an intern and later held positions in the mailroom, and as contract administrator and coordinator in the television literary department.
Sophia Kalin
Bold Films | Creative Executive
Sophia was born and raised in California, so her only options were the film industry, tech, or the film industry. She didn’t take to coding so Sophia headed to film school to study directing. After directing a swath of short films and music videos, she made her way into producing. After graduation, Sophia threw herself into the talent agency trenches before landing as the Creative Executive at Bold Films, the production company behind DRIVE, WHIPLASH, NIGHTCRAWLER and THE GUILTY. Independently, Sophia produces under banner The Kalin Company. She just wrapped on her first film titled DADDY, that's currently in talks for distribution.
Zack Zucker
Bellevue Productions | Literary Manager
Zack Zucker is a Literary Manager at Bellevue Productions. Prior to joining Bellevue, Zack worked at Google, United Talent Agency, and Twentieth Century Fox. On the feature side, his clients have placed #1 on the 2020 and 2021 Black Lists, won the Nicholl Fellowship, and had films premiere at Sundance, TIFF, and Tribeca. On the TV side, his clients have written on such series as FBI: International, How We Roll, Black Lightning, AJ & the Queen, & Flatbush Misdemeanors. As a producer, his feature, THE NOVICE, premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won multiple awards including Best US Narrative. The film went on to sell to IFC Films and was nominated for five Indie Spirit Awards, including Best Feature.
Derrick Eppich
Empirical Evidence | Manager
Born in Detroit, raised in Phoenix and a former fashion professional in New York & Europe, Derrick Eppich has an eclectic background combined with great experience in the film and entertainment industry. Currently, he focuses on character driven genre and prestige storytelling with fresh new voices and emerging filmmakers that best capture the independent spirit and heart. Before starting Empirical Evidence, he worked at The Gotham Group, Lee Stobby Entertainment, and Energy Entertainment. Empirical Evidence reps creatives in the TV, Film, Theatre, and Podcast space in various stages of their careers.
Jason Lubin
First Story Entertainment | Manager & Producer
Jason Lubin is a manager-producer and the principal at First Story Entertainment, which he founded in 2018. The lit management company represents a diverse roster of talented writers and directors with fresh voices in all genres for Film and TV. The company’s clients have been staffed on shows on multiple networks including Showtime, CW, Apple+ and Netflix and have sold series to Disney and HBO Max. In the feature space, First Story clients have written films starring Robert De Niro and John Malkovich and sold specs to Searchlight Pictures. Prior to starting First Story, Jason was a seasoned development executive. He worked as the Head of Production & Development at Lynda Obst Productions, a Sony based production company, and for seven and a half years at Lionsgate, where he rose to Story Editor in the Motion Picture Group and served as the junior creative executive on multiple feature projects.
Alex Barnes
Cavalry Media | Director of Development
Alex is Director of Development at Dana Brunetti's Cavalry Media working across film, TV and podcast. Prior to Cavalry Alex worked at Relativity Media and Trigger Street Productions. His career started in Australia producing and directing public broadcast documentaries, music videos, commercials and films. He was one of the producers on the iconic Australian anthology feature film, Tim Winton's THE TURNING.
Melissa Rickard
H2L Media Group | VP of Television
Melissa Rickard began her career at HBO, where she spent six years in both HBO Films & Cinemax Originals, working on projects such as WARRIOR, BANSHEE, and THE KNICK. Prior to joining H2L, Melissa served as a Creative Executive at Brad Weston’s Makeready where she helped develop the film & television slate. Raised in three different countries and five different states, Melissa views material through a global lens, and endeavors to harness the power of storytelling to create emotional connections to cultures other than one’s own.
Grace Ledding
Agile Entertainment | Literary Manager
Grace Ledding is a literary manager and producer at Agile Entertainment. She got her start as an agent trainee at the William Morris Agency and then became a Creative Executive at foreign sales-based, film finance company, InterMedia, where she worked on BREACH, HUNTING PARTY, and Oliver Stone’s ALEXANDER among others. She then became Vice President at Paramount Pictures-based production company, Cerenzie-Peters, before launching her own management and production company ten years ago. Grace is currently an Executive Producer on Netflix’ animated series, HELLO NINJA!, which just launched Season 4, and developing a premium limited series at 20th Television with Bold Films, BARBIE & RUTH, based on Robin Gerber’s biography of Mattel founder, Ruth Handler.
Evan Bates
Baha Productions | VP of Development & Production
Evan is the Vice President of Development & Production at Baha Productions. Before joining Baha Productions, Evan worked with Academy Award winning filmmaker Oliver Stone and served as an Associate Producer on the film SAVAGES which starred Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch, Salma Hayek, Benicio del Toro, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
Robin Budd
Viewfinder Management | Principal / Manager
Robin Budd launched Viewfinder Management in 2012. Previously, as an independent producer, Robin developed with Tom Perrotta an adaptation of his novel, THE WISHBONES, for television as a half-hour comedy series with John Wells Productions, WBTV and Showtime. She was executive vice president of the first year of the New Voices program at the non-profit the HUMANITAS Prize and prior to that, the senior vice president of Mandalay Television. Before joining the team at Mandalay, she worked for over eleven years in both film and television at Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz's The Bedford Falls Company.
Tiffany Boyle
Ramo Law PC | President
For more than 10 years, Tiffany Boyle has leveraged her business-oriented sales and packaging skills to bring hundreds of films and documentaries to fruition. Through her critical review of content and strategic use of Ramo Law resources, Tiffany creates successful content packaging that bridges the needs of both client and industry demands. Tiffany connects filmmakers with producers, co-producers, executive producers, co-finance partners, distributors, agencies and other industry representatives. She has brought in financing or leading sales on films such as Paul Schrader's THE CARD COUNTER and romantic crime thriller DIE IN A GUNFIGHT; she led the sales and packaging for DEMBANGER (SXSW 2020) and ONE OF THESE DAYS (Berlin 2020); and she recently Executive Produced “LINE OF DUTY” starring Aaron Eckhart.
Everything the Top 10 receive, plus…
Everything the Top 50 receive, plus…
Everything the Top 100 receive, plus…
Michelle Askew signed with a Literary Manager at Fourth Wall after he discovered her and her work through the Launch Pad Feature Competition.
After placing in the Top 10 of the 2021 Launch Pad Feature Competition, Taylor Hopkins signed with a literary agent at Verve.
Launch Pad Feature Top 10 Finalist Rex Cheung signed with a manager at Agile Entertainment after they read his material through the competition.
Wilandrea Blair signed with a Literary Manager at Romark Entertainment after they discovered her through the Launch Pad Feature Competition.
Requires Add-On in Checkout
The best way to learn is by working with experienced writers who have already navigated that path to success. That is exactly what the Launch Pad exclusive mentorship opportunity is set up to do.
Originally from NJ, David has been working as a full-time professional screenwriter since 2017. He and his writing partner Charlie Wachtel co-wrote (along with Spike Lee and Kevin Willmott) the 2018 film BlacKkKlansman, and they currently have multiple projects in development as both writers and producers.
ZACH DEAN has two upcoming features-- “DAY DRINKER” which is being directed by Marc Webb, with Zach, Lit Entertainment Group’s Adam Kolbrenner, and 30West Producing—and “THE GORGE”, with Scott Derrickson directing for Skydance Entertainment. Most recently, ZACH wrote Amazon’s original science fiction tentpole film “THE TOMORROW WAR”, starring Chris Pratt and directed by Chris McKay. Zach also worked on the Universal Studios film “Beast” that will star Idris Elba. ZACH previously sold his original scifi film “CANARY” preemptively to Imagine Entertainment for Ron Howard to direct. He wrote "Starblazers" for Chris McQuarrie to direct at Skydance. He has his original World War II film "ATLANTIC WALL" with Bradley Cooper attached to star at Imperative and has the Bill Graham story with Shawn Levy directing for Fox. Additionally, he wrote “VOYAGERS,” based on the life of Carl Sagan, for Warners. It is being produced by Lynda Obst and Sagan’s widow Ann Druyan. His feature film “24 HOURS TO LIVE" was released in 2017 and starred Ethan Hawke. Zach’s feature “DEADFALL” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival that Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner financed.
A minimum of 1 project will be selected by Development Prize partner Citizen Skull, who will select one project from the Launch Pad Feature competition to develop with the writer(s).
Citizen Skull is a production and management company that specializes in developing and producing documentaries, television, features, animation, and digital content dedicated to compelling narratives. Their projects have premiered with HBO, Netflix, Sundance, National Geographic, Slamdance, TIFF, NYFF, and more. On the management side, Citizen Skull represents writers staffed on major network shows, and creators with content on a plethora of outlets and development deals at ABC, SONY, and various streamers.
This year’s Guaranteed Signing partner is manager Nick Leicht at Bright Leicht Content, who will select a minimum of one (1) writer from the competition to sign as a client.
Nick Leicht is a producer, talent and literary manager with several feature films and series currently in development. He is the CEO of management production company Bright Leicht Content, formerly Elixir Entertainment, which he founded in 2017. He specializes in motion picture and television packaging, producing and talent representation, guiding the careers of actors, writers, directors and producers.
To be eligible for the add-on prizes, entrants MUST select the “Guaranteed Development”, “Guaranteed Signing”, and/or “Mentorship” add-on at the time of entry.
If you select any add-ons at the time of entry, regardless of where you place in the competition, you will still be in the running for those add-on features.
The winners will be chosen based on the following criteria: (i) The originality and commerciality of the premise; (ii) The effectiveness of the plot and structure in serving that premise; (iii) The professional quality and creative use of the writing, formatting and presentation; (iv) The use of dialogue to advance the character, story and entertainment value of the project; (v) The originality, believability and emotional investment in the characters and their impact on the overarching story and themes.
Initial reads will be completed by professional industry readers, after which the top scored scripts will be named to a Second Round. At this point, our internal team of readers will read all remaining submissions to allow for extensive internal discussions over the relative merits and weaknesses of each project. Through internal conferences, we narrow down a list of 100 finalists. At this point, writers may be asked to submit supplemental information (a brief bio, a bible for their tv pilot, etc.) to assist in the decision making process.
Further rounds of internal reading and discussion, as well as consultations with our signing and development prize partners, narrows the finalists down to 10, at which point our panel of industry judges read each script and determine our winners.
Any entrant may be deemed ineligible at the sole discretion of Launch Pad. We reserve the right to amend these rules at any time.